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School officials in the Community High School District in Downers Grove, Ill., are proposing changes to the district's math curriculum to align learning with Common Core State Standards and make the transition from middle-school to high-school math more cohesive. If the school board approves the measure, incoming freshman would have two course options -- Foundations of Math I and Math I. Foundations would offer extra support to students who may not be ready for more-advanced concepts, and Math I would be a blend of algebra, geometry and statistics.

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After a decade's absence, a school district in New Jersey will open a middle school with a dedicated gifted and talented program in the fall. The district's approximately 12,000 students will compete for 50 spots. The program will offer flexible, customizable scheduling to allow students to move to more-advanced classes as needed.

New York City's Education Department is looking internally to develop the next generation of school leaders, writes Shael Polakow-Suransky, the department's chief academic officer. Polakow-Suransky writes in this blog post that the district is looking for leaders, in which educators receive training and support needed to become effective principals. One such path, the Aspiring Principals Program, now has become a national model that has been replicated in other districts, he writes.

Response to Intervention may be more difficult in math, special educators say, but a newly issued federal What Works Clearinghouse guide offers recommendations for success. Remediation for elementary-school students should focus on whole numbers, while older students can move on to more-advanced arithmetic concepts. But all students should also review basics.

Elementary teachers are getting refresher courses in calculus, statistics, algebra and geometry in order to redefine how they teach math to young students, a report says. For the past three years, the Vermont Math Institute has worked with teachers on introducing more-advanced math concepts to grade-school children by stressing the value of theory versus actual application of the topics.

The College Board has indicated that it plans to revise the SAT to better reflect what students learn in the classroom. President Gaston Caperton says the revamped exam likely would include multiple choice writing questions, a handwritten short essay question and more-advanced math problems. Caperton says the analogy section may be scrapped in favor of more emphasis on reading comprehension.